CBF will have to recall missionaries unless funding improves

Bad news.

All cooperative mission work is struggling right now.

I sincerely hope and pray that the CBF, SBC, and our state conventions will get what they need to fulfill God's mission.

The Cooperative Program of the Southern Baptist Convention is brilliant in many ways and has served the kingdom of God for 85 years. However, one of the great weaknesses of the SBC Cooperative Program (going all the way back to 1925) is that the people in the local churches are somewhat disconnected from the missionaries on the field because of the intermediary agency of the cooperative funding and organization.

Over the years, the SBC has taken steps to address this weakness (missionary visits to churches, literature, special offerings, etc.), but in this post-denominational era, modern church members often do not identify strongly with their national Baptist affiliation (often expressing itself with church names that omit the word "Baptist"), so that cooperative giving is neglected.

That's one of the reasons why SBC seminaries are struggling (not to mention other Baptist seminaries).

It's a sad state of affairs.

Unless Baptists can either work out a new way of cooperatively funding missionaries that reconnects the missionaries to the local churches, we're going to see a reduction in mission funding.

And my analysis completely omits the real financial struggles that individuals, families, and churches are facing these days. Some churches are having trouble simply taking care of their local commitments and appropriate support of their vocational ministers.

 

The SBC recently approved its "Great Commission Resurgance" at its annual meeting in Orlando last week. I don't know all the details, but it seems like they want churches to categorize giving between the Cooperative Program and "Great Commission Giving."

 

Missions giving across the board has been down, unfortunate reality for all. The CBF never claimed to have all the answers, just that they do missions in a different way. I for one applaud their transparency on this issue unlike the 15 year record sealing efforts of the GCR.